Feedback

November 08, 2007

Laura, Newport News: I thought that comment you made in this morning's paper in big heavy print, referring to Patricia Stall as an "upstart" was not called for in an unbiased paper.

* Randy, Newport News: Today's headline regarding the state Senate race, "Democrat tops GOP upstart Stall." My dictionary defines upstart as "One suddenly raised to power wealth, etc." It seems that the term upstart would be more appropriately applied to Miller rather than Stall.

Editor: No offense intended. Upstart seems like a fair description related to how Tricia Stall upended incumbent Marty Williams in the Republican primary.

* Paul, Newport News: Checking paper for election results and I don't see any mention of Phil Hamilton. I believe he ran unopposed. I don't see any mention of him in the pictures. Was that a mistake or an oversight? I would have liked to have seen Hamilton's name. Thank you.

Editor: As with the many other unopposed incumbents (see below), it would have been news if Del. Hamilton had not won. But it would have made sense for the caption with the photo of House winner Brenda Pogge to have noted that the other two happy people in the picture were Dels. Glenn Oder and Phil Hamilton.

* George, Hampton: I went to vote Tuesday in Hampton. There were only two items on the ballot - Mamie Locke and Mayme BaCote, both Democrats. I went to vote against that Miller guy for Senate, but there were no Senate choices. I think there was some funny business at the polling place and I walked out without voting.

Editor: No funny business. You must live in Sen. Mamie Locke's Senate district, not the district in which John Miller competed with Tricia Stall. You're right, though, that you had no choice for Senate, considering that Sen. Locke was unopposed.

* You should get rid of the stickers on the front cover, especially of the one that ran on Election Day. Thank you.

Editor: We're taking up that question, but we had relatively few calls about those stick-on campaign ads - marked "paid political ad" - on the front page. We deliberately kept them apart from the news coverage of the election on the front page, and I don't think anybody was led to believe the stick-on ads represented an endorsement.

* You did not give complete coverage of everything that was on the electoral ballot for Williamsburg and James City County. There were two or three names on the ballot that I didn't know about. And one of them was Soil and Water Conservation District. And no one knew who they were, what affiliation they were, and what the job entailed. I think you need to spend time covering everyone, not just the front-runners and those trying to discredit the other.

Editor: We wrote a story just about the Soil and Water Conservation District directors (and what the job entails) on Sunday, two days before the election. That package included the information you wanted about the specific candidates in the only two contested districts -- James City County and Gloucester. Sorry you missed it. But it's true that we purposely spent most of our reporting time and our newsprint space on election contests that involved representatives at the state or local level who make laws, impose taxes (or not), etc.